


Embedded in the frost

by ParadifeLoft



Series: What do they know about friends [2]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Dialogue Heavy, Gen, New Sith Wars, not Curufin if he can help it, oh dear who let the Jedi get involved in galactic politics again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-26
Updated: 2013-07-26
Packaged: 2017-12-21 11:10:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/899593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadifeLoft/pseuds/ParadifeLoft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Curufin and Finrod, influential members of a wealthy Arkanian house, agree that the Jedi are accruing far too much power outside their proper sphere of influence in the galaxy - but they are not of such a single mind on the solution to that problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Embedded in the frost

**Author's Note:**

> Written for an AU prompt meme on tumblr.
> 
> This story takes place a couple thousand years prior to the events of the Star Wars movies, during a conflict called the New Sith Wars, when the galaxy was at war with a series of Sith warlords, and the Senate had numerous Jedi supreme chancellors. Arkanians are a near-human alien species well known for their fantastic scientific prowess and occasional-to-frequent amorality regarding the process and results.

"You must agree with me that this streak of Jedi Chancellors is a worrisome sign for the Republic, Curvo," Finrod murmured under his breath, leaning in close to his cousin’s ear as they walked. There were few people milling around for the outside of the Senate building (though it was later than he was accustomed to being there), but he worried still about the wrong ears overhearing. Caution kept one alive, after all.

Curufin cocked his head dismissively. “I doubt anyone with sense whose agenda was not that of the Order would disagree." He looked straight ahead out at the glittering skyline, through the wide glass window, and did not bother to lower his voice. “Though to be fair it seems the, oh, armies of Sith trampling one another to beat down our door is the rather more immediately worrisome."

Finrod’s expression grew even more deeply troubled  than it had been to begin with, and he hastened his steps, both to keep pace with his cousin and to reach the confines of his own office all the sooner. “I realise your concerns are tied a bit more to the martial given the devastation almost everywhere but here in the Core but - cousin, as a Galactic Senator and not merely just another wealthy Arkanian, I need to think about the future of the Republic past whenever this war finally ends."

"Then where do you think we disagree?" The door to Finrod’s office opened freely when Curufin turned the handle, and he nearly made a noise of paranoia that somebody had broken in but that Curufin caught his eye with a smirk on his lips. Of course he had unlocked the door telekinetically - impressive in its subtlety, but frivolous.

"I want the Jedi Order permanently installed as our high lords and masters even less than most, I would imagine." He scowled at that, sure of how his cousin meant it. When he turned in from locking the door again, Curufin had already sat himself in one of the plump chairs, lavish in his long, richly-coloured robes. “Oh, but I see, you worry for the Order itself. For their precious morals. If I may tell it to you straight, it is unwarranted, Fin. And frankly, it could do more harm than good. For all the disorder in the galaxy, it has always managed to be some overblown Jedi schism that has caused the most wanton destruction, if you do not recall your history lessons, and it’s my opinion that we’d be better off uprooting the problem at its very source."

Finrod spoke delicately, but not without weight. It was a talent he, of few other Arkanians of his standing, had mastered. “For your own sake I hope you do not readily spout such sentiments outside present guarded company."

A pause. “But no, it is not a problem of the Jedi alone. It is the power afforded Force users above others and the temptation that power engenders, and better that temptation should be curbed by even such a flawed group as the Jedi than allowed to run amuck."

It was more difficult, among his own people rather than among the many species he saw and worked with, to detect a sarcastic roll of the eyes, but Curufin had long mastered communicating the gesture clearly.

"Last I recall, our own line has produced a grand total of zero raving lightning-spouting madmen, and it has been, what, close on several hundred years?"

"No, that wouldn’t really be your style," answered Finrod, dryly. Let his cousin be reminded that he could give just as well as he could get. “Though I can imagine easily enough some son of yours in several generations taking it upon himself to reinvent those awful beasts of Darzu’s in a fit of scientific and lordly pique."

Curufin’s eyes narrowed at that. “I am hardly flattered or amused. But fine. It is, as I said, not an immediate concern, so I suggest you busy yourself in your official capacity with this - " he yawned " - matter of the Jedi and their increasing delusions of political grandeur. And I, if everything goes as I hope from here, shall finally make some headway into strategies for matching these Sith armies with more well-suited skills." He reached down, into the folds of his robe, and then held in his palm, for display, a metallic pyramid, constructed of an intricate lattice upon which iridescent colours shifted as he spoke.

"Our great-grandfather’s holocron," he confirmed, almost smugly, at the wary, questioning look that Finrod gave him. “Father asked I should… procure it next I visited you, for some bits of information he thinks will be extremely useful in our current project."

"That was retained by - "

"By the Jedi Council, when he deserted the Order due to the vastly increasing pressure to separate children from their families entirely?" he finished. “Yes."

“ _Confiscated_ , I think would be a better word, for that matter," said Finrod, somewhat more hotly than he had intended. “The contents of that holocron are not innocent. The techniques inside brush the Dark Side, or so I have been told."

"And yet I do not trust the tellers, nor would I care for that matter even if their claims held some truth."

It was not an unexpected sentiment, if he was honest with himself. But nonetheless, he still frowned inwardly. “I’ve long wondered if, when,our family, producing Force-sensitives outside the tutelage of the Order, might turn the way of the Draays," he murmured.

Curufin smiled, sweet like glitterstim. “You are the one with foresight, cousin," he murmured, and laughed.


End file.
